LA County Could Reach Orange Tier In April, Health Department Says
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tuesday reported 318 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 52 new deaths, bringing countywide totals to 1,210,905 cases and 22,519 deaths.
Of the new deaths reported, 16 people were over the age of 80, 21 people were between the ages of 65 and 79, 13 people were between the ages of 50 and 64 and two people were between the ages of 30 and 49.
On Tuesday, the county's adjusted case rate dropped from 5.2 new cases per 100,000 people to 4.1 new cases per 100,000 people and the test positivity rate dropped from 2.5% to 2.0%.
"Los Angeles County continues to make significant progress slowing transmission," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, county public health director, said. "Should our case numbers continue to decline, our recovery journey could land us in the less restrictive orange tier in April."
The news comes days after L.A. County moved to the red tier, which allows the county to reopen several key sectors including, on-site learning for students in grades 7 through 12, museums, indoor dining at restaurants, gyms and movie theaters with required safety measures in place.
Public Health also said the number of outbreak investigations in Los Angeles continue to decline. As of Tuesday, there were 385 ongoing outbreak investigations, a significant reduction from the 1,130 outbreak investigations reported Feb. 16.
There were 865 people with COVID-19 hospitalized, 28% of whom were being treated in intensive care units.
With testing results available for more than 5,962,000 individuals, the county's overall positivity rate was holding at 19%, though the daily test positivity rate had fallen to 1.8%.